Chapter 14

The next day, a message came from the guild. The guild’s messages arrived as small notes imbued with mana.

[Chadie has made up her mind. Come at once.]

After checking the note, I hurried to the guild. I handed a silver coin to the vagrant as usual and went inside, and the interior of the guild—now so familiar to me—came into view.

“Oh my, you’ve come early.”

“Hello, Dahlia.”

Dahlia greeted me warmly. Chadwick was nowhere to be seen. She guided me straight inside. Then she handed me a refreshing drink that would quench my thirst.

“Chadwick will be here soon.”

“Is Chadie coming too?”

At my question, Dahlia smiled and said she did not know either. She told me to wait a moment and then disappeared.

As I drank and glanced around, the atmosphere felt somehow different from before.

‘Was it always like this…?’

The last time I came, it had definitely felt strongly like a tavern, but after being away so long, the atmosphere looked quite different. Should I say it felt more like a proper guild?

The tavern-like tables and chairs had all been cleared away, and in their place were only objects whose purpose I could not identify.

As though they were about to move at any moment, things were packed in boxes and scattered here and there, and the contents of those boxes were suspicious.

“Animal bones, perhaps…?”

I cautiously touched a fragment of bone peeking out from the edge of a box. It did not seem to be a fake ornament, and yet…

“Those are materials.”

My curious observation was cut short, and I flinched at the voice from behind me and turned around.

There was no Chadie—only Chadwick.

With an awkward expression, I carefully set the object back down.

“Materials?”

“Yes. Things we need. We haven’t finished tidying up yet.”

“Come to think of it, the atmosphere does seem a little different. It’s cluttered, too…”

He nodded and seated me back toward the bar. An awkwardness lingered between him and me. I sensed what news was coming.

“…I suppose Chadie has decided not to see me after all?”

“Yes.”

At his unhesitating answer, I nodded. My prediction had been right after all. Why was it that ominous premonitions never failed to come true?

I also felt sorry, as though I had disturbed Chadie, who was doing perfectly well on her own.

“I understand.”

“In exchange.”

“Pardon?”

Chadwick looked at my face closely from across the table. As though he could learn something by doing so. I did not avoid his gaze either.

“She says she will reconsider if you help us.”

“Help… you? What does that have to do with Chadie…”

“Chadie belongs to us.”

“What did you say?”

I shot up from my seat in surprise. Even at my raised voice, Chadwick’s face showed no surprise as he closed his mouth.

“Chadie belongs to the guild?”

“That is not it.”

But at his answer, I tilted my head again. What kind of absurd thing was that?

“This is not a guild.”

“…Pardon?”

Unable to understand his words, I blinked slowly. If this was not a guild, then what on earth was it?

Then why had this man taken on my request?

“What do you mean, not a guild? If this isn’t a guild, then what is it? Then why was my request…”

“To be precise, it means this is not a guild made up only of errand runners. This is ‘Cersi.'”

“……”

That could not be. At his answer, my mouth worked soundlessly.

I could not understand what Chadwick was saying. First he said this was not a guild, and now he said this was Cersi. That “Cersi”?

Cersi was an infamous mage organization. The infamy of the group called Cersi did not come merely from the fact that it was a private mage association.

They opposed the imperial court. They rejected the very system by which all mages belonged to the imperial court and had to follow its orders.

The imperial court recognized only the mages incorporated into it. All private use of magic was illegal. For several years, the imperial court had even organized a special pursuit unit to capture them.

But the pursuit unit produced no results for years, and in the end the imperial court announced that their organization had collapsed.

Cersi had vanished just like that. And now he was saying this was that “Cersi”?

“There must be some misunderstanding…”

In other words, Cersi was a group made up solely of mages. Which meant the man before me had to be a mage as well. And so did that woman, Dahlia.

“It is true that there was a slight misunderstanding.”

“A slight one?”

When I raised my voice, he let out a leisurely laugh.

“Chadie is a mage?”

“Why? You don’t believe it?”

“…No.”

Mages show signs of their power from a very young age. The Chadie I had seen had shown no such signs.

“So you think you saw no signs of a mage in Chadie.”

“Yes. The Chadie I saw was small, delicate, and also…”

“Her temper was foul, wasn’t it.”

“Pardon?”

At those words, I asked back again.

It was bewildering to learn so many things all at once.

“Chadie only acted docilely for you.”

At that, I lost my words and swallowed hard. It was true. Chadie had been nothing short of an angel to me, but not to others.

She absolutely refused to do anything she did not want to do, even if it killed her, and the other teachers had quite a difficult time because of it.

Mages were eccentric. People said it was because the mana they possessed was unstable and ran wild. Of course, as someone who was not a mage, I could not fully understand even that.

But thinking about it, Chadie’s temperament in childhood had not been good. To call it merely “not good” required a great deal of exaggeration.

He raised an eyebrow as though seeking my agreement.

“B-but there were no other signs…”

“You must remember the day Chadie made a boy cry.”

“That was…”

“Don’t tell me it was that boy’s fault.”

At his firm words, I quietly shut my mouth. Now that I thought about it, there had been such an incident.

Chadie usually clung to my side and wore an angelic face, but if anyone got in the way between her and me, she was merciless.

Still, since I could restrain her when I was present, there was usually no problem—but the problem was when I left my spot even for a moment.

That day too, I must have stepped away for some reason. When I returned, the orphanage was already in chaos. Chadie stood in the middle of that chaos, greeting me with an unconcerned face.

The boy never tormented me again after that day.

“But that boy provoked me first, and Chadie was…”

“Yes, perhaps it was not entirely Chadie’s fault alone. But in the end, it all comes down to possessiveness. Mages have no interest in others’ affairs, but they show no mercy to anyone who touches what is theirs.”

As he said this, he gazed at me without wavering. Everything he said was right.

I had thought Chadie’s sensitivity was simply her personality, but to think it was a sign of a mage. My head grew complicated at the unexpected truth.

“You seem to know a great deal about Chadie’s past?”

Thinking it over carefully, perhaps Chadwick was a distant relative of Chadie. They did look strangely alike, after all…

“…I only heard it from Chadie.”

I nodded, but then another question arose.

“Then did Chadie show her abilities as a mage after I left the orphanage?”

“Yes.”

But it was strange. Even so, for Chadie to be in Cersi rather than the imperial court.

A mage must be reported to the imperial court and registered the moment their power manifests… Then a thought cut across my mind.

One year after I was adopted, the orphanage vanished without a trace.

He nodded as though he understood without even hearing me out.

“Is there a connection between Chadie showing signs of a mage and the orphanage disappearing?”

I had suspected that some external pressure had been behind the orphanage’s disappearance. Hearing Chadie’s story, my guess did not seem entirely far-fetched.

“…For now, I cannot tell you anything. When I judge that you truly intend to help us, I will tell you then.”

“What happened to the other children at the orphanage? …And Sylvia?”

When I spoke Sylvia’s name, Chadwick’s gaze grew even heavier.

My fingertips grew cold with tension.

Sylvia Dollin was my benefactor, but searching for her was an entirely different matter.

Even now, I could not erase the question of whether she had sent me off to be adopted through some deal with Nolmen Erdona.

I knew well enough that I should not doubt Sylvia. She had saved me, fed me, clothed me, and kept me alive. Because she was that kind of person, it was frightening to confirm the truth. That such a person might have made a deal with Nolmen…

I shook my head to clear away the baseless speculation.

“Let me tell you one thing in advance—I cannot say that everyone was ‘safe.'”

“……”

At Chadwick’s words, my hands and feet turned cold in an instant.

It was not a direct answer, but that alone was answer enough. My guess had been right.

“Sylvia has gone missing.”

“…!”

Even as I swayed slightly in shock, Chadwick did not move an inch. He seemed to be closely observing my reaction to those words.